Throughout France more than a million people turn out in May Day demonstrations against right-wing presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen. (SeeMay 5.)

A car bomb created by the Basque separatist organization ETA explodes outside a stadium in Madrid where soccer fans are lined up in anticipation of a game.

At the National Magazine Awards ceremony, the big winners are The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, while awards for general excellence go to Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Vibe, National Geographic Adventure, and Print.

may 2

Israeli forces withdraw from Yasir Arafat’s compound in Ramallah, and a firefight erupts at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, resulting in some fire damage to the structure.

Erik R. Lindbergh lands his Lancair Columbia 300 airplane at Le Bourget airport after a 17-hour transatlantic flight that was a re-creation of the historic New York–Paris flight made by his grandfather, Charles Lindbergh, in 1927.

may 3

Eight rural mailboxes in a circular cluster of small towns in northwestern Illinois and northeastern Iowa are found to be booby-trapped with pipe bombs; each bomb is accompanied by a long, obscure antigovernment note. (SeeMay 7.)

A funeral is held in Cape Town for Saartje Baartman, a Khoisan woman who left South Africa in 1810 and was exhibited in France as the “Hottentot Venus” for the rest of her life and after her death; Baartman’s remains were returned to South Africa by Paris’s Musée de l’Homme.

Perry Christie becomes prime minister of The Bahamas after the opposition Progressive Liberal Party unexpectedly and overwhelmingly wins the general election.

The Mystery Writers of America, Inc., presents its Grand Master award to Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser novels, and names Silent Joe, by T. Jefferson Parker, best novel.

may 4

In the 128th running of the Kentucky Derby, a long-shot horse, War Emblem, wins; War Emblem had recently been purchased by Saudi Arabian Prince Ahmed ibn Salman and trained by Bob Baffert (SeeMay 18).

An airplane flown by EAS Airlines, a private carrier in Nigeria, crashes into a crowded neighbourhood in Kano shortly after takeoff, killing all 76 aboard, including the sports minister, Ishaya Mark Aku, as well as dozens on the ground.

may 5

Pres. Jacques Chirac wins reelection as president of France with 82% of the vote in the second round of balloting, as against 18% for Jean-Marie Le Pen; it is the largest margin of victory in France’s history. (SeeMay 1.)

The government of Nepal says that several recent battles with Maoist rebels have left 400 rebels dead, which, if true, would be a remarkable turnaround in battle fortunes; in recent months Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has cast the government’s war with the Maoist rebels as part of the war on terror.

may 6

A leading candidate to become prime minister of The Netherlands, Pim Fortuyn, is assassinated; Fortuyn, an anti-immigration advocate with flamboyant views and lifestyle, had quickly risen to prominence in the previous weeks. (SeeMay 8.)

may 7

A suicide bomber explodes his weapon in a gambling and billiards club outside Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 15 and wounding 58; Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cuts short his visit to U.S. Pres. George W. Bush and returns home the following day.

Feyenoord Rotterdam beats Borussia Dortmund of Germany 3–2 in the association football (soccer) UEFA Cup final in Rotterdam, Neth.

may 9

A bomb explodes at a military parade in Kaspiysk, in the Russian republic of Dagestan, held to commemorate the end of World War II; 42 people, including 12 children and a number of members of a brass band, are killed.

Two men push into a bank in Mor, Hung., and open fire with automatic weapons, killing at least six people and deeply shocking a nation unaccustomed to violent crime.

Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening orders a moratorium on executions pending the completion of a study on whether racial bias is a factor in death penalty cases; Maryland is the second U.S. state to order such a moratorium, after Illinois in 2000.

may 10

Robert Hanssen, former FBI employee and double agent for the Soviet Union, is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

After several false starts, the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity in Jerusalem is lifted with an agreement that many of the Palestinians within are to be exiled; the siege began on April 2.

may 11

Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti cancels what would have been his final appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, pleading illness; he has announced that he will retire this year.

David Beckham, the star captain of the English national soccer team, signs a new contract with Manchester United.

Slovakia defeats Russia 4–3 to win its first world ice hockey championship.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter begins a five-day visit with Pres. Fidel Castro of Cuba. (SeeMay 16.)

A runoff presidential election is held in Mali between Amadou Toumani Touré and Souomaïla Cissé; on May 24 it is declared that Touré is the winner.

may 13

A U.S. official arrives in India on a mission to defuse tension between India and Pakistan, which are believed to be on the brink of war, though Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes says in an interview that India will not attack Pakistan.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. announces that it has made a deal to buy mail-order retailer Land’s End.

may 14

Ahmed Tejan Kabbah is commandingly reelected president of Sierra Leone; he is credited with having brought peace to the country.

Three Pakistani gunmen open fire on a bus and then on the family quarters of a military encampment in Kaluchak, in the Indian-administered area of Kashmir, killing 32 people, mostly women and children.

For the first time in Jordan’s history, a court grants a woman a divorce from her husband; until a new law took effect in January, men could divorce their wives, but not vice versa.

may 15

Presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer says that U.S. Pres. George W. Bush was given information in August 2001 that Osama bin Laden was interested in hijacking aircraft in order to attack American interests.

Parliamentary elections held in The Netherlands result in 43 seats for the Christian Democrats in the 150-seat legislature and 26 for the List Pim Fortuyn, a better-than-expected showing; Prime Minister Wim Kok’s Labour Party wins only 23 seats.

The Gold Medal for Architecture, awarded every six years by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, is presented to Frank O. Gehry in a ceremony in New York City.

Real Madrid defeats Bayer Leverkusen of Germany 2–1 in Glasgow, Scot., to win the association football (soccer) Champions League final.

may 16

Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, unexpectedly publishes the full text of a speech by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter in which he is critical of the Cuban government and supports a proposed referendum on civil rights that the newspaper has heretofore ignored. (SeeMay 12.)

Scientists at the University of Hawaii announce that they have discovered 11 new moons orbiting Jupiter, giving it a total of 39.

may 17

Bertie Ahern is handily reelected prime minister of Ireland.

A U.S. proposal to exempt peacekeeping troops from prosecution before the new International Criminal Court is not accepted by the UN Security Council.

The German media giant Bertelsmann agrees to acquire the assets of Napster, a company that developed a World Wide Web file-exchange system, two days after takeover discussions had collapsed.

Legislators in Germany rewrite a clause of the Basic Law to require the government to respect the dignity of animals as well as people.

may 18

As Indian and Pakistani troops fire at each other across the line of control in Kashmir, India expels the Pakistani ambassador over the attack of May 14.

The World Health Organization agrees to delay the destruction of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus, due to be destroyed at the end of the year to prevent the disease from ever occurring again, in order to allow time to develop vaccines and treatments in case some of the virus falls into the wrong hands.

may 19

After two weeks of relative calm in Israel, a Palestinian suicide bomber disguised as an Israeli soldier blows himself up in a market in Netanya, killing two people and wounding dozens.

As questions as to whether the U.S. intelligence community should have been able to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are raised in Congress, Vice Pres. Dick Cheney says that there will almost certainly be more al-Qaeda attacks against the U.S.; the following day FBI Director Robert Mueller says that it is inevitable that there will be suicide attacks in the U.S. similar to those occurring in Israel.

Pope John Paul II canonizes Amabile Lucia Visintainer, known as Mother Paulina; she becomes the first Brazilian saint.

Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter is auctioned off at Sotheby’s for $4.9 million, the highest price ever brought at public auction for a Rockwell painting.

may 20

Thousands of people attend the celebration in Dili of the birth of a new nation, East Timor.

Officials in Tajikistan say that the country has agreed to cede 1,035 sq km (400 sq mi) of largely unoccupied territory to China, shortly after Kyrgyzstan agreed to cede 1,320 sq km (510 sq mi) of its territory to China; since Soviet times China has maintained that 30,000 sq km (11,500 sq mi) of territory in Central Asia belongs to it.

In Iran, Azerbaijani Pres. Heydar Aliyev and Iranian Pres. Mohammed Khatami sign an agreement on mutual cooperation; an important issue is access to the resources of the Caspian Sea.

may 21

A moderate Kashmiri separatist leader, Abdul Ghani Lone, is gunned down in Srinagar in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir; it is unclear who the assassin is.

The brokerage firm Merrill Lynch & Co. agrees to pay a $100 million fine to settle a case in which it is accused of having publicly promoted stocks of companies whose business it wanted while privately denigrating those same stocks.

It is reported that scientists at Hebrew University in Israel have developed a featherless broiler chicken, claiming that broiler chickens tend to produce excessive body heat, so this benefits the chickens and of course eliminates the need for plucking.

may 22

The skeletal remains of congressional intern Chandra Levy, missing since April 30, 2001, are discovered not far from her home in Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park by a man walking his dog; it is later confirmed that she was murdered. (SeeMarch 5.)

In Birmingham, Ala., Bobby Frank Cherry is convicted of four counts of murder in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, in which four girls were killed; the former Klansman had hoped to shut down the civil rights movement with the violent act.

Pope John Paul II arrives in Baku, Azerbaijan, an almost wholly Muslim country, for a five-day trip that will also take him to Bulgaria.

Samuel D. Waksal resigns as CEO of ImClone, which is under investigation for having misled investors as to the regulatory status of its anticancer drug Erbitux; meanwhile, at the Gap, where stock prices have fallen precipitously of late, Millard S. Drexler unexpectedly resigns as CEO.

may 23

FBI Director Robert Mueller says that he is ordering an inquiry into complaints by senior Minneapolis agent Coleen Rowley that higher-ups had stymied her office’s attempts to investigate suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001.

may 24

U.S. Pres. George W. Bush and Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin sign a treaty pledging the U.S. and Russia to deactivate nuclear warheads until, by 2012, there are no more than 2,200 active warheads each, at which point the treaty is to expire.

At an International Whaling Commission meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan, Japanese delegates, frustrated at their inability to get a proposal to end the moratorium on commercial whaling brought up for a vote, successfully lead the commission to deny whaling rights to native Arctic communities that depend on the whale for food. (SeeFebruary 22.)

Sandra Baldwin resigns as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee after admitting that her résumé contained false information.

A baby that weighed only 283 g (9.97 oz) at birth in early February is sent home from the hospital in Florence weighing 1.9 kg (4.4 lb); she is believed to be the tiniest baby to have survived.

may 25

Lesotho holds parliamentary elections under a proportional representation system new to Africa, in which each voter votes separately for the party of his choice and the district representative; the system is meant to discourage unrest by making it easier for smaller parties to gain seats.

New Zealand’s Canterbury Crusaders defeat Australian rival the ACT Brumbies 31–13 in the Rugby Union Super 12 final in Christchurch, N.Z.

The first major Andy Warhol retrospective since 1989 opens to great fanfare in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

may 26

In the race for the presidency of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who campaigned on a strong anticrime platform, is convincingly elected.

Near Webbers Falls, Okla., a river barge bumps into a support of a bridge over the Arkansas River, causing a section of the four-lane Interstate 40 to collapse into the river and a number of vehicles to plunge over the edge.

In the Indianapolis 500 auto race, Paul Tracy is penalized for having passed after a yellow caution flag was flown in the final laps of the race, and Brazilian Hélio Castroneves thereby becomes the first person since 1971 to win two consecutive Indy 500s.

At the 55th Cannes International Film Festival, Roman Polanski’s film The Pianist wins the Palme d’Or; the Grand Prix goes to Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki for The Man Without a Past, and acting honours go to one of its stars, Kati Outinen, and to Olivier Gourmet for his role in Le Fils.

Azali Assoumani is sworn in as president of the new Union of the Comoros after having been declared winner of a disputed second round of voting that took place in April; each of the three islands composing the union also will have its own president.

may 27

In a televised speech to the nation, Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf urges dialogue with India over the Kashmir issue but asserts solidarity with Kashmiris resisting Indian rule, denies that Pakistan supports terrorist attacks across the line of control, and maintains that Pakistan is ready to fight if need be.

Moskovsky komsomolets, a Russian newspaper, reports that the Ministry of Defense is advising members of the army to forage for food, as there is no money to pay food compensation; most Russian officers have not received such compensation for over a year.

may 28

Both sides officially agree to the establishment of a NATO-Russia Council, permitting Russia to participate in many NATO discussions.

It is reported that Libya has offered to pay $2.7 billion to the survivors of the passengers on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scot., in 1988, in return for the lifting of UN and U.S. sanctions against the country.

Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat signs a Basic Law, delineating rights of the people and responsibilities of the government, that was passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1997.

Tom Brokaw, who has anchored the NBC nightly news since 1982, announces that he will retire in 2004; the network names Brian Williams as his replacement.

may 29

The World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization issue a joint statement saying that some 10 million people in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Swaziland face starvation because of the worst food shortages in 10 years.

In a cabinet reshuffle in Great Britain, Alistair Darling is named to replace Stephen Byers as transport secretary after Byers had resigned over, among other things, rail failures, and Paul Boateng becomes the first black member of the British Cabinet when he is named deputy treasury secretary.

Mohammad al-Fayed, owner of the genteelly satiric British magazine Punch, announces that he has had to close the magazine owing to lack of revenue and declining subscriptions; Punch was published from July 1841 to April 1992, then relaunched by Fayed in September 1996.

Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne and his family agree to a contract for a second season of MTV’s surprise hit television show The Osbournes, chronicling everyday life in the rock star’s household.

may 30

A ceremony is held to mark the conclusion of the cleanup operation at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The Philip Morris Companies agree to sell the Miller Brewing Co. to South African Breweries.

The New England Journal of Medicine publishes the results of a small study of an experimental drug that appears to stop the progress of Type I diabetes.

may 31

Zimbabwe declares an AIDS-related national emergency in order to take advantage of trade rules that permit it to bypass patents and import cheaper generic versions of needed drugs; it is the first country to do so.

In first-round World Cup association football (soccer) play in Seoul, S.Kor., the sports world is stunned when Senegal defeats France, the reigning champion.

The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden—featuring sculptures of the Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant, and the Lorax, among others—opens in Springfield, Mass., with ceremonies that include a parade down Mulberry Street, the setting for the first Dr. Seuss book.